


not born but made

by feralgayanddumbassaoyama



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, star wars: attack of the clones
Genre: (for once lol), Anti-Clone Racism, Anti-Gungan Racism, Anti-Traditional Mandalorian Racism, Anti-Tusken Racism, Canon Compliant, Clone Rights, Discussions of slavery, F/M, Fantasy Racism, Gen, Rated G bc this isnt worse than the prequals so, and be like oooo she must support clone rights!!!!, i love padme to death but yall gotta admit, ig, shes not a political radical by our standards, uhh lets see what else warants tagging, yall will see padme be friends w satine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:26:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29229957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feralgayanddumbassaoyama/pseuds/feralgayanddumbassaoyama
Summary: When Padmé Amidala is twenty seven years old, she sets out to kill the man she loved, for she believed him to have turned into a monster.This is the truth. This is a lie.Anakin Skywalker has not always been a monster, because monsters are not born, they are made, but the man that Padmé Amidala fell in love with most certainly was one.or:Padmé Amidala was raised from the cradle to be a politician. By most measures but her own, she was not a good person.
Relationships: Ahsoka Tano & Her Deteriorating Faith in the Republic, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 20
Kudos: 44





	not born but made

**Author's Note:**

> bat meet hornets nest

When Padmé Amidala is twenty seven years old, she sets out to kill the man she loved, for she believed him to have turned into a monster.

This is the truth. This is a lie.

Anakin Skywalker has not always been a monster, but when he is nineteen years old he kills a village with his own two hands and a lightsaber and nothing more.

Padmé, then twenty four, knows this. She was there.

Anakin Skywalker has not always been a monster, because monsters are not born, they are made, but the man that Padmé Amidala fell in love with most certainly was one. 

It just so happens that the village he kills was made up of people whose personhood she was perfectly comfortable denying, for the very simple reason that they were not human and were not particularly capable of or interested in speaking Basic.

Here is the truth:

When Padmé Amidala is twenty seven years old, she sets out to kill the man she loved, because he changed into a different sort of monster than her, one that did not pretend to be anything else.

  
  
  


Ahsoka Tano is sixteen years old, and she has just lost an entire squadron of men. In her two years at war, it is the first time in a long time that she has lost so many.

_ It’s okay _ , Padmé says, twenty six,  _ They were made for it _ , and that feels wrong, because she doesn’t know if Padmé means they were made for war or made to die or both but either way that isn’t right, isn’t it? Not ‘not right’ like it’s not true, but ‘not right’ like it shouldn’t have happened.

She says as much, to Padmé.

_ Well, of course it feels wrong. War is terrible, _ Padmé says, easy as breathing.

_ That’s not what I meant _ , Ahsoka says.

_ How so? _

_ We made them to die and they don’t even have a choice about it _ , she says, because she lives and breathes by these men, her brothers, and she mourns them like her own because they  _ are _ her own, because she knows bone-deep that what she’s saying is true.

_ Well, they’re fine with it, aren’t they? _ Padmé says, simple and easy as though she has not stolen the air from Ahsoka’s lungs and the grief from her heart and replaced it all with a chasm of horror yawning wide threatening to swallow her whole.

She says it as though she’s never heard Kix say that he wants to be a doctor, a real one and not just a field medic, or Wolffe quietly admit that he likes the idea of working with children one day, maybe, or Rex swear her to secrecy on pain of death and say that he sometimes likes to draw, little comics and things, or a hundred other brothers who like a hundred other things, none of which are fighting and dying to oil the cogs of the great Republican machine that designates them as  _ property _ instead of  _ people _ .

To be completely fair to her, she never has heard these things, but she shouldn’t have to be told that people are people to know it, because she’s supposed to be  _ good _ .

Ahsoka hears her words and hopes that she means  _ they are fine with fighting _ , instead of  _ they are fine with dying _ , because the first option is bad but the second is worse, and Padmé Amidala is one of the Republic’s last hopes of redemption and she  _ has _ to be merely bad instead of worse.

Ahsoka leaves the room, because this is the woman Anakin Skywalker loves, and if he loves this woman who says that Ahsoka’s brothers’ deaths don’t matter, then  _ what does that say about him? _

Less than a month later, she leaves the Jedi Order. She never sees Padmé Amidala again.

  
  
  


Padmé Amidala, twenty-five, needs help, and she knows just who to call: her new friend, Duchess Satine Kryze of Mandalore.

_ My dear friend _ , they greet each other, and then talk for some time about unimportant things. Padmé’s go-to for smalltalk is usually the War (already being called the Clone War, even in official capacities, though most often shortened to simply  _ the War _ . There was only the one, after all), but Satine abhors speaking of such things, so they mostly discuss the latest updates from their respective systems, until she sees a good time to strike.

_ Satine, _ she says, _ I need a bit of advice _ .

_ Of course, dear _ , she says in response, because Satine is closer to a decade Padmé’s senior than not, and fancies herself a bit of a mentor figure to her.

_ It’s about the Gungans _ , Padmé says.  _ It’s been over a decade since their friendship with the Naboo, but, well, they are still quite a military society, and it doesn’t sit well with me. _

_ Oh my _ , Satine says, and Padmé nods grimly.

_ I see you see my problem _ , she says,  _ and I was thinking, well, you’ve experienced such success with New Mandalore…  _ , she trails off, letting the sentence trail for Satine to fill in the blanks.

_ Say no more, my friend, I understand completely _ , Satine assures her, and she smiles in relief.

_ I knew you would _ .

Satine smiles in response, and they both take a sip of wine, matching vintages from two bottles on two planets half a galaxy apart, a gift from Satine to Padmé to bring the two of them closer together.

_ I find _ , she says,  _ that taking away their weapons works wonders. _

A perfectly formed crease appears between Padmé’s perfectly shaped eyebrows, the only mar on her perfectly pretty face.  _ I could do that _ , she says,  _ but it would be very difficult to pass without harming the Naboo _ .

Satine takes another sip of wine.  _ Of course, of course, that’s why I placed regulation on beskar, not blasters, at least at first. Only Death Watch uses beskar anymore. _

Padmé nods, satisfied.  _ The Gungans use plasma technology _ , she says,  _ I could convince the Queen to place regulations on that. _

Padmé Amidala is one of the most stubborn people in the galaxy. Her will is done, no matter how hard it is or how long it takes. 

Shortly before the end of the Clone Wars, plasma production is banned on Naboo for it’s detrimental impact on the environment (plasma is one of the most environmentally-friendly substances there is, above even the GAR-standard carbon). 

This has very little effect on the humans of Naboo, who use plasma very little, and what they do use is already produced. The Gungans, however, rely almost entirely on plasma for most of their technology, including that which shields their cities and keeps their unborn children safe in their spawning-grounds, and now have to pay very high tariffs in order to import even a little bit of it.

A scant few months later, this law is taken, modified, and applied across the entire galaxy, with the exception of Imperial facilities, and the Gungans can no longer afford to import plasma at all.

  
  
  


Anakin tells her, once, of the Zyggerians, and their slaves, and Padmé says  _ that could never happen in the Republic _ , and ignores the deals with Hutts, forced through the mouths of one whom they onced owned, and a child, witnessed by soldiers she will not call slaves, for the simple fact that in her mind they are not people enough to count.

Later, she thinks about her late friend Mina Bonteri, and how she was a Seperatist, the same as the Zyggerians, and wonders if she knew.

Eventually, Padmé decides that it does not matter if Mina knew, because Mina was kind to her, and that meant she was good.

  
  
Here is the truth:

Monsters are not born, they are made, and Padmé started very, very young.

**Author's Note:**

> fuck it open comments
> 
> this fic was inspired by multiple conversations in the bobaganda server abt neolib padme
> 
> im on tumblr at dykepixie


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